Brazil won't extradite Italian fugitive Battisti

FILE - In this March 19, 2007 file photo, Italian leftist activist fugitive Cesare Battisti, center, is escorted by Federal Police officers as he arrives at the airport in Brasilia, Brazil. Battisti was granted political asylum by Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday, Dec. 31, 2010, according to a statement released by the president's office, but the case must still be heard by the nation's Supreme Court, the top justice said. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, file)
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FILE - In this March 19, 2007 file photo, Italian leftist activist fugitive Cesare Battisti, center, is escorted by Federal Police officers as he arrives at the airport in Brasilia, Brazil. Battisti was granted political asylum by Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday, Dec. 31, 2010, according to a statement released by the president's office, but the case must still be heard by the nation's Supreme Court, the top justice said. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, file)
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"I would say that when Mr. Battisti was tried in Italy, the decision was probably appropriate given the historical circumstances of that country," Genro said last year. "Today, any judge would absolve Mr. Battisti for insufficient proof."

The case passed last year from Genro to the Supreme Court, which ruled that while there was no legal reason Battisti could not be extradited, the final decision rested with Silva.

The court subsequently ruled, however, that Silva's decision must be legally supported and accepted under the extradition treaty.

Silva's decision had immediate diplomatic repercussions.

Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in a statement that Italy has decided to recall its ambassador from Brazil for consultations about which legal recourse to take.

The Italian government aims "to use immediately all possibilities offered by the Brazilian judicial system" to fight Silva's decision, Frattini said, expressing the "strongest dismay and deep disappointment."

The decision "contradicts the fundamental principles of law and offends relatives and the memory of the victims of those very grave acts of violence committed by Cesare Battisti," Frattini added.

Italy will take initiatives aimed at showing the Brazilian Supreme Court the "incompatibility of the presidential decision with the previous verdict of November 2009 that denied there were the requisites to give Battisti refugee status," Frattini said.

Italian Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa denounced what he called "this incredible decision by a government we thought was a friend."

"It's shameless."

"Don't be fooled, this is an affront, first to the victims, then to the Italian government," La Russa said in a telephone interview with Italy's Sky TG24 TV.

Maurizio Campagna, brother of a police officer for whose 1979 killing Battisti was convicted in absentia, said by telephone that Silva's decision "is a black spot for which he'll be judged badly."